Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Lunar geophysicists convene at ASU

Dr. Harrison "Jack" Schmitt, former U.S. Senator and the twelfth and last man to set foot on the Moon for the first time in 1972, keynotes for geophysicists gathered at Arizona State University last week. He discussed data collected and archived from the Apollo Era and lessons for the future [Scott Stuk].

Lee AllisonArizona Geology

Geophysicists gathered at ASU's School of Earth and Space Exploration last week for a 2-day workshop to "highlight how the geophysical community can contribute to NASA’s long-term plans to install a series of autonomous geophysical stations on the Moon."

Co-convenor Matt Fouch said, “The goal of the scientific exchange is to provide NASA and the broader scientific community with ideas and recommendations about how to most efficiently and effectively collect new geophysical data from the lunar surface, using everything from landers to robots to astronauts, and over a range of local, regional, and global scales."

ASU hosted one of the first specific workshops on ground-based geophysics of the moon on the Tempe campus Thursday and Friday.

The event focused on the discussion of the physical state and knowledge of the moon, as well as future plans to visit the moon.

“One of the primary goals for the workshop was to provide an interface between the planetary and the terrestrial geophysical communities,” said Matthew Fouch, an associate professor at the School of Earth and Space Exploration and one of the event’s coordinators.